The "Say Aah" and "Bottoms Up" singer downplayed the importance of his most recent album, "Chapter V," reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in August. "That's really only about who did better that one week," Songz, 27, said over the phone recently from Fort Myers, Fla. He also hesitated to call himself a mainstream artist even though he has more than 5 million Twitter followers. "It's almost impossible to achieve mainstream success as an R&B artist these days," said Songz, who will perform Saturday at Arie Crown Theater. "Radio is being dominated by records that are 120 beats per minute. R&B is about groove and soul."

Because Songz is an R&B veteran and one of the most popular artists in a genre lacking mainstream stars, I asked him to create the ultimate male R&B star using various traits from some of the genre's biggest names. Fortunately for this exercise, Songz didn't have as hard a time complimenting his peers as he did himself.

Voice: Marvin Gaye

"It was soulful, sweet and strong. He could take his voice so many different places. It was almost like an instrument."

Lyrics: R. Kelly

"His lyrics go from uplifting to very street to very sensual and sexual."

Stage presence: Michael Jackson

"Even though he's not R&B. And it's not even just his dancing. It's the way he could dominate the stage just walking from one side of the stage to the next. He had the ultimate stage presence. He could command the crowd. He could stand on stage for five minutes straight screaming. He was very shy when he wasn't on stage, but you could never tell."

Fashion style: Brad Pitt

"Sometimes he looks really nice and sometimes he looks like he couldn't care less. … I wouldn't go with any R&B singer's style. At the beginning of my career, I wore clothes that were five (sizes) too big. Now I'm wearing tailored suits. And Usher, he had some (odd) stuff back in the day …"

Confidence: Prince

"I don't think (this artist) should go as far as Prince goes though, having the butt cut out of his pants and wearing high heels."

Work ethic: Trey Songz

"I take pride in working very hard. You need to understand that hard work doesn't instantly pay off. My career grew gradually and taught me a lesson every step of the way."